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Saturday, January 18, 2014

This interesting manufacturer's mark on an estate gate-latch caught my eye a number of times,

but only yesterday did I see it lit by the pleasant sunshine which we had most of the day!

I have endeavoured, but failed, to find any info on the manufacturer. whose name was PURSER,

In the past I have traced the manufacturer of gates from the 1800s at the site of

a former GOING house at Ballyphilip, South Tipperary.

The name there was PROCTOR, who worked from Clonmel!

The name GIBBS, from Ballypatrick, can be found on

many gates, cemetery grave-markers and railings in the Clonmel area.

..................................Not giving up too easily, I have spent a considerable time researching the Purser name since adding the above 'post'. I can now say that it's possible the gate may have been made by NATHANIEL PURSER, a servant in the Curraghmore household. Curraghmore did have it's own forge. Further info to follow.............................................

Well, I got more than I bargained for as there were
PURSERs galore in Portlaw in the 1901 census, taken on March 31st of that year,
which is there for all to check out on the Internet:

The Household Return Form for Curraghmore was filled
out by the Marquis himself, Henry Delapoer (sic) Beresford, then aged 25 years,
in beautiful handwriting, and signed by the enumerator, James Slattery -
Constable, in an equally fine hand.

Out of a total of a total of 33 occupants, shown as
living in house No. 1, obviously Curraghmore House itself, were five members of
the Beresford family, plus 28 servants, and among them was HANNAH PURSER, then
aged 25 years, a housemaid and domestic servant. Hannah’s birthplace was given
as County Carlow, marital status – single, and she was shown as a member of the
Church of Ireland.

All other PURSERS mentioned hereunder were shown as members of
the Church of Ireland.

House No. 7 showed MARK PURSER, aged 28 years, birthplace – County Carlow, religion – Irish Church
(obviously Church of Ireland), whose occupation was given as a coachman and
domestic.

A grand total of eleven PURSERS at
Curraghmore estate, and three of them blacksmiths!

An examination of the 1911 census, showed
considerable changes after a lapse of just ten years, as follows:

The only Curraghmore
entries showing the PURSER surname were from house No 5: WILLIAM PURSER, aged
30, single and head of family (?), blacksmith; SARAH PURSER, aged 26,
single, Housekeeper; JOHN PURSER, aged 22, brother, blacksmith. The form was
signed by WILLIAM PURSER, head of family.

After all this, I thought it better to also look up
the surname in County Carlow via Google, and came up with the name NATHANIEL
PURSER, blacksmith, from Staplestown. Despite much searching, I failed to find
it a second time in order to get further information. This is surely a definite
link with all those Portlaw PURSERs. It’s
quite possible that this Co. Carlow NATHANIEL, was the man of the same name who
lived in house No. 16 at Curraghmore in 1901! If so, he forged the gate in question in 1893 at the age of 23, when head blacksmith in Curraghmore, but I'm surprised that, being a servant, he was allowed to put his brand on the gate!

By sheer coincidence, I had photographed the
picturesque Church of Ireland building at Staplestown in 2012 on my way to
county Wicklow. Maybe I should go back and have a look at headstones there next
time I’m in the area.

About Me

Having been taking photographs of the Portlaw area, and it's people, since I arrived here to retire in August 1999, I have now decided to create this Blog (web log) to show some of those pictures, most of which have never been seen by the public previously.
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A Happy New Year to you all!